


Earworm

by BarPurple



Series: BarPurple's House of Horror 2017 [7]
Category: Black Mirror
Genre: Grain Implants, News Media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 17:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12304260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: Third Party tech and the Grain implant don't mix well





	Earworm

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“Welcome to Media Stream’s round-up of the Earworm Crash.

Six months on the world is still reeling from the collapse of the ill-fated Grain compatible music provider, Earworm. 

The music streaming company who’s advertising promised to ‘provide a sound track to your life’ was a Grain compatible third-party service that embedded music tracks to users’ memories. 

Earworm shot to popularity last year with low monthly fees and a vast catalogue of music. They were compared to older internet based music streaming sites such as Spotify, but were the first to offer an on-the-go playback via the Grain implant, and were the only company that linked music with memories. 

From the very start artists, most notably classic metal band Metallica, filed claims against Earworm’s parent company, Talbot Innovations, for non-payment of digital rights. These cases were described in one Earworm press release as ‘a minor oversight for which we are deeply apologetic’ and they went on to assure users that ‘every step has been taken to ensure that there will be no interruption to service while these matters are resolved.’

For several months after the Metallica case was resolved it looked like Earworm had everything sorted out and their user base exploded to the point where it was hard to find anyone not using the service.

Behind the scenes the company was in serious trouble, despite posting record profits for a Grain compatible company, the legal battles for digital rights had drained the company’s finances. One former employee who came forward in the aftermath of the event, and remains anonymous under whistle-blower protection, claimed the company was ‘running on fumes and hope’ from as early as August.

On November 17th at seven am EST Earworm announced that it was in receivership. This announcement went largely unnoticed, receiving less than a million hits across global news outlets. By nine am EST their servers went dark and the chaos began. Over 280 million users found any soundtracked memories blocked. Due to a coding error, blocked memories showed up as deleted, triggering security alerts for any user at airports or transport hubs. The sudden massive increase in security alerts sparked transport lockdowns, and global panic as hasty news outlets broadcast speculation of a planet wide terror attack. 

The situation was made worse when footage of the British Prime Minster suffering what later became known as Earworm Amnesia during an address to parliament was leaked.

The Stock Market suffered its biggest crash since Black Wednesday while emergency services worldwide were stretched to the limits by the influx of scared Earworm users. 

Grain Multimedia have worked tirelessly to correct the problem, but on-going lawsuits filed by Talbot Innovations mean that to date only 25% of Earworm’s former customers have regained their memories.

 

You might be interest in the following articles.

We don’t remember our baby Earworm Amnesiacs tragic story

New laws banning third party Grain tech ratified

He faked EA to divorce me Starlets shocking claim

I am a virgin again thanks to EA

Surgeon replaced wrong hip claims Earworm Amnesia 

Grain launches music streaming service


End file.
